Ryan Baird death: trial told Rangers fan bus was going too fast

Ryan Baird

Published:23:02Wednesday 16 May 2018

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A victim of a bus crash which left a Northern Irish Rangers fan dead has been giving evidence at the trial of the driver.

According to media reports in Scotland, John Burns – a 63-year-old from Sanquhar, a village in south-west Scotland – told the trial of Callum Phillips that the bus had been going “too fast” before the crash.

Phillips – described in the reports as being aged 49 and from Dalbeattie in the far south-west of Scotland – denies killing Larne man Ryan Baird by dangerous driving on October 1, 2016.

Mr Baird, aged 39, was killed as a result of the crash at the Crossroads roundabout, south of Kilmarnock.

He had moved to Sanquhar, and was en route to Ibrox for a match at the time of the crash which left him dead and others injured.

According to the BBC, Mr Burns told the hearing at Glasgow’s High Court, overseen by Lady Stacey, the driver seems as if “he was trying to make up time... it was going too fast to take the roundabout”.

He is further quoted as saying: “I wasn’t too happy about the driving, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

He said the next thing he remembered was the bus appearing to swing, and him being thrown through the window.